As G.O.P. Governors Meet, McCain Comes Calling

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: December 1, 2006

Last anyone checked, Senator John McCain of Arizona is not -- and has never been -- a governor.

But no matter. Mr. McCain turned up on Thursday morning at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa here for a guerrillalike visit to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association. That is a group headed by Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts governor who is widely viewed as Mr. McCain's chief rival for their party's 2008 presidential nomination.

As Mr. Romney gamely presided over the morning session of the meeting, Mr. McCain commandeered a room at the Doral Resort for eight hours of meetings with nine Republican governors, including Gov.-elect Charlie Crist of Florida, according to Republicans familiar with his schedule.

On Thursday evening, many of those at the conference were bused to an elaborate reception, courtesy of Mr. McCain, at a resort hotel in Miami Lakes. Somehow, no reception rooms were available for him here.

Mr. Romney has hoped, like George W. Bush in 2000 and Bob Dole in 1996, to use the overwhelming support of the Republican governors as a springboard to the presidential nomination. Mr. McCain served notice with his incursion that Mr. Romney could not take them for granted.

That said, the fact that Mr. McCain decided to fly here for three days and spend $50,000 on a reception that lathered governors with platters of shrimp and three open bars suggests just how much Mr. Romney has complicated his efforts to position himself as the inevitable nominee.

Mr. Romney politely deferred questions about 2008 when he appeared at a news conference with about 12 other governors who spent much of the session analyzing the reasons for the Republican defeats on Nov. 7 and what needed to be done to get the party back on track.

''We're not getting into '08 considerations at this press briefing,'' he said.

But Mr. McCain's team was only too glad to oblige, saying they were scooping up tentative endorsements on Mr. Romney's watch.

''We have a number of governors who are committed to John, but we are not ready to announce them yet,'' said John Weaver, Mr. McCain's senior political adviser.

Mr. Romney's aides disputed Mr. Weaver's statement, and indeed, it would not be out of character for Mr. Weaver to be exaggerating a bit as part of a strategy to persuade recalcitrant governors to jump on a departing train.

Mr. McCain, in an interview on Thursday evening, said he was in no way invading Mr. Romney's territory.

''I've known these guys for years,'' he said. ''I've campaigned for these people. I don't see how that's anybody's territory.''

All this provided a fair amount of entertainment and helped leaven a meeting that was otherwise filled with somber assessments of the recent election that saw Republicans swept out of power in Congress.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Ken Mehlman, warned against viewing the losses as a temporary setback created by a tough electoral environment.

''We can't simply write this election off as preordained, as the natural order of things to be automatically rectified in two years,'' Mr. Mehlman said, warning that the party has to figure out ways to increase its appeal.

This very exclusive group that Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney are fighting over was also diminished in the election. There will be just 22 Republican governors next year, compared with 28 now.

Governors' support has historically proved important in primary battles and general elections. Besides the presumed prestige of endorsements, governors can deliver political machines, troves of contributors and control over state offices like boards of elections.

The success of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, at establishing himself as a front-runner early in the 2000 race developed in no small part because he became the favorite candidate of Republican governors.

''Often more than House members and senators, governors have state structures and can make significant impacts in their state,'' Mr. Weaver said.

Mr. McCain's schedule included meetings on Thursday and Friday morning with the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky, North and South Dakota, Texas and Vermont.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota drove to the evening reception with Mr. McCain and later said in an interview he intended to support Mr. McCain if he ran for president.

Still, several governors said in interviews they would not be making a decision this early.

''I don't know who a single governor is supporting,'' said Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Mr. Barbour did say, though, that Mr. Romney, whose duties as head of the Republican Governors Association included handing out checks to Republican candidates for governor, was popular with this group of Republicans.

''Everybody likes him, and he did a very good job,'' he said. ''But look, nobody can assume anything.''

The guest list for Mr. McCain's reception included Mr. Romney and his political team. They sent their regrets, saying they were too busy with the affairs of the conference.

Mr. Romney was in a bit of a tricky position. On one hand, aides said, he did not want to look as if he was commandeering the association as a campaign tool, particularly when some of Mr. McCain's supporters have been suggesting that he was guilty of precisely that.

That said, Mr. Romney's tenure as head of this group is one reason that he is viewed as being so strongly positioned for 2008. The post has allowed him to travel around the country, including visits to important states like Iowa, appearing before Republican activists and earning good will with the same candidates, elected officials and state party leaders who are going to be critical in winning battles.

A spokesman for Mr. Romney, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the governor was not available for comment on Mr. McCain's political activities.

''Governor Romney's focused on his speech, which looks at a new generation of challenges facing America and what we must do to meet them,'' Mr. Fehrnstrom said. ''It makes sense for Senator McCain to be here honoring Republican governors, because as a group they are fiscally conservative and innovators in education and health care policy. The answers to many of the challenges facing our nation can be found in what they are doing every day.''

Photos: Senator John McCain, left, at his elaborate reception yesterday in Miami Lakes, Fla., near the governors' meeting in Doral, where Gov. Mitt Romney, a likely rival, addressed the Republican association that he heads. (Photo by Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press); (Photo by Alex Quesada for The New York Times)